Portable computing devices are gaining popularity, in part, because of their decreasing prices and increasing performance. Another reason for their increasing popularity may be due to the fact that some portable computing devices may be operated at many locations, e.g., by relying on battery power. However, as more functionality is integrated into portable computing devices, the need to reduce power consumption becomes increasingly important, for example, to maintain battery power for an extended period of time.
Moreover, some portable computing devices include a liquid crystal display (LCD) or “flat panel” display. One of the main limitations of a conventional LCD panel is motion blur, e.g., while displaying fast moving images. This may be due to two attributes of the LCD panels. First, slow response time of the liquid crystals forming the LCD panel may cause motion blur. Second, hold-type characteristics of the pixels in an LCD panel may cause motion blur.
To meet the increasing demand for displaying high quality video on mobile computing devices (which include LCD panels), the refresh rate of such panels may need to be increased to reduce motion blur. However, this may increase power consumption, e.g., due to operations that are performed at higher frequency to meet the higher refresh rate. As a result, an LCD may consume a significant portion of the reserved battery power at higher refresh rates.